Germ or Vitamin C?

Jon Gordon

Research from the HeartMath Institute (heartmath.org) shows that when you have a feeling in your heart, it goes to every cell in the body, then outward—and other people up to 10 feet away can sense feelings transmitted by your heart. This means that each day you are broadcasting to your team how you feel. You are either broadcasting positive energy or negative energy, apathy or passion, indifference or purpose. Research from Harvard University also supports that idea that the emotions you feel are contagious and affect the people around you. Your team is just as likely to catch your bad mood as the swine flu, and on the flip side, they will catch your good mood as well. And this principle applies to everyone, not just the leader. Each member of your team is contagious and every day you all are either sharing positive or negative energy with each other. Great cultures are built with positive contagious energy so it's essential that you and your team share it. When you walk into the locker room, the office, or onto the field, you have a decision to make: Are you going to be a germ to your team or a big dose of vitamin C? Will you infuse your team with positive energy or be an energy vampire and suck the life out of them?

Great leaders and teams are positively contagious with a vision and purpose that drives them, positive thoughts that fuel them, and emotions that energize them. Great leaders and teammates realize that their overall attitudes affect everyone in the locker room and the building.

Contagious with a Vision and Mission

Jon Gordon

A powerful way for leaders to be contagious is to share a positive vision and mission with their team. Every team needs a vision and mission to unite them and serve as a North Star to guide them in the right direction. Your vision and mission should be simple, clear, bold, and compelling. I'm not talking about a string of buzzwords and jargon that mean nothing to your team members, but rather something tangible and exciting to serve as a rallying cry and focal point for your team. Taking an example from the business world, long before “Let's Build a Smarter Planet” was IBM's advertising tagline, the phrase served as an internal vision and mission for everyone to sell, build, and design projects that made data more useful for clients.

Doug Conant, the former CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, told me that the most important thing he did when leading Campbell's turnaround was to share the vision and mission statement with everyone in the company. He said he did so at every meeting and as often as he could in order to keep everyone moving in the right direction. Their vision and mission was “Together we will build the world's most extraordinary food company by nourishing people's lives everywhere, every day.” General Motors rejuvenated their mission, brand, and sales with a simple focused vision and mission, “To design, build and sell the world's best vehicles.” USAA keeps everyone in their organization focused on their mission and vision that they are here to “Facilitate the financial security of its members, associates and their families by providing a full range of highly competitive financial products and services. In doing so, we hope to be the provider of choice for the military community.”

When speaking to leaders of sports teams I encourage them to create a mission statement that doesn't mention winning a championship. After all, every football team has a goal to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of an NFL season, but merely stating that goal won't help you achieve it. Your success comes from your team's commitment to a vision and purpose. I believe that a vision and mission should include the greatness you want to chase with a focus on the character traits and purpose that inspire you to get there.

Some teams I have worked with made it their mission to be the toughest, hardest working team in the league. Other teams decided they were playing for their community and families. Some play to honor their tradition and leave a legacy. In The Hard Hat, I share how the Cornell Lacrosse team played to honor their teammate who had died playing the game they loved.

Research shows that people are most energized when they are contributing to a bigger cause beyond themselves. As a leader, you want to inspire your team to move beyond their own selfish desires and concerns and contribute to a cause bigger than them. When your team has a greater vision and purpose they will play with greater passion and energy. I can't tell you what your vision and mission should be but I can tell you they are essential to unite and rally your team. You can create this vision, mission, and purpose as a leadership group and share it with your team. When possible, create it with your team members.

Contagious with Your Belief

Jon Gordon

Winning doesn't begin just in the locker room; it also begins in the mind. You win in the mind first and then you win on the field or court. Often the difference between success and failure is belief. Does a team believe they can win? Have their preparation, practice, and focus given them the confidence that they can? Do they stay positive and optimistic through adversity and challenges? Pete Carroll said, “The world trains people to be pessimistic…one of the most important things I must do here is to make sure my players and staff believe that tomorrow will be better than today.” Leadership is a transfer of belief and it's essential that you share positive beliefs with your team, especially from the beginning. The minute the season starts, it's time to set the tone and cultivate the right belief system. You can't wait until adversity happens to do this. Start from the beginning, and you will be strong when challenges come your way. I'm convinced one of the most important things a leader must do is to be positive and optimistic. The research supports this and actually shows that optimism is a competitive advantage. Manju Puri and David Robinson at Duke University found that optimistic people work harder, get paid more, win at sports more regularly, get elected to office more often, and live longer! It turns out that being positive is not just a nice, feel-good way to live but is, in fact, the way to live if you want better health, more meaningful relationships, and greater individual and team success.

I've witnessed the power of belief firsthand working with Clemson football and Dabo Swinney. When asked how Clemson has achieved at least 10 wins in each of the past four seasons for the first time in school history, Dabo said, “People often call me an overachiever, but I'm not an overachiever. I'm an over-believer.” Dabo believes in his team so much that he inspires them to believe in themselves. Every meeting with his team is an opportunity for him to tell them what they can achieve if they truly believe. At every practice, he raises their expectations and then inspires them to rise up and meet these expectations. Like Apple founder Steve Jobs, he inspires them to believe they can do more, create more, and become more than they ever thought possible. Steve Jobs was famous for what Apple employees called his reality distortion field. In Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs, he describes how Steve could convince the Apple team that they could meet a project deadline that everyone thought was impossible. Time and time again, they would actually do it. Steve's team said he distorted their reality from pessimism (or some would say realism) to optimism. His belief was contagious and Apple became one of the greatest companies on Earth as a result. What could your team achieve if you were contagious with optimism and belief?

Contagious with a Positive Attitude

Mike Smith

Like most things, when it comes to belief, if you don't have it you can't share it. As a coach, I always knew I had to share positive beliefs with my team and this meant I had to fill my mind with the right thoughts and maintain a positive attitude. Shortly after I was hired in Atlanta I wrote down the expectations I had for myself. The first one that I wrote in my notes was “Never a bad day, only bad moments.” This was a commitment to never let myself have a bad day. It did not matter how many bad or challenging moments would occur; at the end of the day, I would make sure to identify enough good and uplifting moments to declare it a good day. It is so much easier to deal with and overcome the bad moments when you think about how fortunate you are to have an opportunity to impact and lead others. So instead of allowing myself to focus on the negative, I created moments of gratitude and focused on the positive. Sure there were days when I had to really work to find the good, but I still found it and did my best to share a positive attitude with everyone in the building.

Head coaches work not only with players and other coaches, but they also have to interact with a number of different people throughout the building. Depending on the day and time of year, I met with coaches, players, the owner, our team president, the general manager, trainers, team doctors, travel and logistics people, members of our communications department, the local and national media, our radio and TV partners, and our community relations people. Not all of these meetings are positive or bring about happy outcomes. In fact, many of these meetings address issues that need immediate resolutions. By not letting myself have a bad day I was better able to deal with these situations and help the rest of the organization from over-reacting to the ebbs and flows that occur during a day.

I discovered that when I approached the challenges of the day with a positive, helpful attitude to serve others, it not only uplifted my spirits, but also set the tone for the entire organization and helped everyone perform at their highest levels. Keep in mind that your attitude is reflected in your body language, facial expressions, demeanor, and the inflection in your voice. The leaders of the team or organization set the tone and attitude. Every moment of the day someone on the team or organization is taking cues from you. A positive approach takes practice and a different mindset, but it's well worth the effort.

Contagious Leaders in the Locker Room

Mike Smith

I also witnessed the impact that a team member with a positive attitude can have on and off the field. I remember our first scrimmage, when our offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and I were standing behind the huddle listening to rookie Matt Ryan call his first play. With the confidence of a seasoned quarterback, he told a veteran receiver that he was going to throw him the ball high and told him to go up and get it. Most first-year QBs don't think or talk with that much confidence. After the scrimmage, I looked at Mike and said, “It looks like we got ourselves a QB.” Matt's positive attitude and approach to the game was contagious in other ways, too. He was always working to improve, whether it was during the season or the off-season. For example, Matt always had an off-season project that he felt was going to make him a better player. One year he studied the top five NFL quarterbacks in completion percentage and evaluated every throw that they had made the previous year. He wanted to see what they were doing and evaluate why they were so successful. The following season, he was in the top five in completion percentage. Another off-season, he was focused on gaining weight and getting stronger. He set the tone for the off-season by being the first player back in the weight room weeks before the off-season program officially started. When word got out that Matt had already started his off-season work in the weight room, it did not take long for the majority of the team to start their workouts prior to the official start date.

Matt's positive approach along with his contagious desire to be great rubbed off on the rest of the team and organization. No one ever worked harder than our starting quarterback, on and off the field. You have to have this type of leader and mentor on your team to maximize your chances of being successful. If you are fortunate to have a few team members with these traits who are embraced by the coaching staff and management, you will see it reverberate throughout the organization. This will help set and reinforce the expectations for the rest of the team and organization, and through this process, more players on your team and in your organization will become self-starters.

Tony Gonzales, a soon-to-be Hall of Famer, was also an incredible leader for us. There are different ways to be a contagious leader; some people are very vocal while others are quiet and let their actions speak. When Tony joined our team he had been one of the best players in the league and was arguably the greatest tight end to ever play. Tony was all about routine and he had a routine that he would go through before, during, and after practice to get in extra work. He would get out on the field about 15 minutes before practice started and work on catching passes. Almost every free minute that he had during the scheduled practice he would spend working the skill of catching the ball or refining his footwork coming out of breaks to improve his route running. It did not take long for others on the team to notice what Tony's routine was. As the days turned into weeks, almost the entire team started working on the specific skills of their positions during their free time in practice. They were mimicking what Tony was doing with his free time during practice. The receivers and quarterbacks had set their own routine to get extra work on catching the ball, and route running, and it was not unusual to see the different position groups working together on the specific skills they needed to be better players and teammates. Tony was a contagious leader who did not have to be verbal to lead. His quiet workmanlike approach spoke volumes and affected hundreds of players throughout his career.

When you talk about contagious leadership, you also have to talk about Ray Lewis, who I coached when I was with the Baltimore Ravens. Even though he has retired, Ray's legacy is a big reason why the Ravens still play great defense. His contagious attitude helped our defense hold the all-time NFL record for fewest points allowed in an NFL season. Ray was a very vocal, emotional, passionate leader of that team. His work ethic on and off the field was off the charts. Ray was all about accountability. First, he was always accountable to himself and then to the guy that lined up next to him. He always made sure that every member of the team understood that we were all relying on each other to be successful. Ray had this unbelievable love for what he was doing. He wanted to make sure that everyone around him was well prepared. He was a leader who developed leaders and mentored countless teammates who have gone on to be great players in their own right. Ray's attitude and his approach to preparation were so contagious in Baltimore that he inspired everybody to focus on the details of the weekly preparation before game day. I had never been around a group of players who were so prepared both physically and mentally to do their jobs on game day, and their commitment was because of Ray. He made everyone around him better.

In an ideal situation you would have one contagious leader or mentor in every position group on the team. Think of each position group as a separate department within an organization. The most successful teams that I have been around are the ones that have this contagious leadership and mentoring in each position group.

If you want to be successful, you must have contagious leaders like Matt Ryan, Tony Gonzalez, Ray Lewis, Mike Peterson, Marcus Stroud, Rod Woodson, Brian Finneran, and Trent Dilfer in your locker room. Your culture will come to life through the leaders and people in your locker room. Make sure you have the right team members to strengthen your culture instead of people who suck the energy out of it. You can do everything right as a leader and coach, but if you don't have positive mentors and team members in the locker room your culture and team will fall apart.

No Energy Vampires Allowed

Jon Gordon

I love Mike's stories about the impact a positive leader can have, and he nailed it when he talked about the detrimental impact a negative team member can have. A negative coach can sabotage the entire team's performance. He can give his team the gift of belief or the curse of doubt. We also know that one negative teammate can sabotage a team. One person can't make a team but one person can break a team. To build a positively contagious team you must not only feed the positive with a positive vision, belief, and attitude but you must also weed the negative from your team. You must literally post a sign that says “No Energy Vampires Allowed” and tell your team that you will not allow negativity to sabotage the vision you have and the team you expect to become. Mark Richt, head football coach at the University of Georgia, did this and the impact was powerful.

Four years ago, Mark called after visiting with Mike Smith and told me that his team was reading The Energy Bus and asked if I would speak to them. I spoke before the season, and unfortunately they lost their first two games. Georgia had been underperforming the previous few seasons and the media was reporting that Mark was on the hot seat and would lose his job if this season didn't go well. I texted him after the second loss and said “I believe in this team. I believe you all are going to turn it around.” Mark texted me back and said, “Jon, the guys are still on the bus. In years past we've allowed energy vampires to ruin this team but not this year. This year we won't allow it.” In the team meeting room, Mark had an artist draw a large picture of an energy vampire on the wall facing the seats where the players sit. If a player or coach acted like an energy vampire, the team took his picture and put it on the wall. No one wanted to be on the wall. It was a message from Mark to his team that they would stay positive through their adversity and challenges. It worked and the team went on to win the next 10 games in a row and made it to the SEC championship.

I shared this story with the University of Tennessee football team this past season and, when I was finished speaking, coach Butch Jones told the guys the meeting was over but then called out the names of 10 guys and told them to stay. I asked Butch who these guys were and he said, “Oh, these are our energy vampires.”

I said, “Oh, you are going to deal with that now?”

He said, “Yes. Why wait?” After the meeting Butch walked out of the room and into the hallway where I was speaking to the athletic director. I asked him how it went. He said, “Powerful. Most of the guys admitted they were being energy vampires and are committed to being a positive influence on our team. They are going to be difference makers for us this season. But a few of the guys don't get it, won't change, and we will have to let them off the bus.”

Tennessee overcame a lot of adversity that season and made their first bowl game in years. They were a great example that a team that stays positive together wins together. I'll never forget Butch's words: “Why wait?” To build a winning team you must create a positive culture where negativity can't breed and grow, and the sooner you start weeding it from your team the stronger and more positively contagious your culture and team will be.

The No Complaining Rule

Mike Smith

When it comes to weeding the negativity from your team you must also weed the subtle sources like complaining in addition to overt negativity like energy vampires. While it's obvious who your energy vampires are, complaining can often grow undetected beneath the surface and, if left to breed and grow, it can have disastrous effects on your team as well. That's why after reading Jon's book The No Complaining Rule I created a No Complaining Training Camp. The entire team was given the book for their summer reading and I gave the guys bracelets with “No Complaining” on them and told the team that they weren't allowed to complain. If they had a complaint they could bring it to me if they also had a suggested solution to the complaint. We were going to be a positive team who stayed upbeat through the long, hot August weather in Atlanta. We were not going to be a group of guys who complained about insignificant issues. It worked so well we declared it the No Complaining Season and our players wore the bracelets all the way through. Many members of the organization continue to wear them. I have worn mine for more than five years. I had players who asked me for additional bracelets so that they could give them to their immediate and extended family. We also had different departments (e.g., the marketing group and all the yearly interns) within the organization read the book and they wore the bracelets as well. It was a great tool and had a positive impact on our team. Guys would catch themselves complaining and stop. They realized that complaining is toxic to the team and locker room. I have found that a positive locker room helps create positive performance on the field.

What we think matters. Our words are powerful. Our body language is always being evaluated. The energy we share with our teammates and co-workers is essential. Instead of complaining, we focused on gratitude and appreciation for the chance to compete, to play a game we love, and the opportunity to get better. If you are complaining, you are not leading. If you are leading, you are not complaining. Great leaders are positively contagious and I encourage you to spend more time sharing a positive vision, belief, attitude, and encouragement with your team. If you do this you won't allow yourself to have a bad day and you'll give yourself and your team a better chance to have a great day.